


thicker than water

by MC_Lily



Category: Hypnosis Mic
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Family, Gen, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Reunions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-12
Updated: 2019-04-12
Packaged: 2020-01-11 23:13:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,341
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18434102
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MC_Lily/pseuds/MC_Lily
Summary: Otome and Ichijuku talk quite a bit in what one would not consider a professional manner over Ichijuku’s chosen wine and cheese of the week in their pajamas. Every Thursday, in fact.“I could never imagine myself having children, is all.” Ichijuku says.Otome hums. “I was your age when I had my son. It’s not for all, I can tell you that right now.”Ichijuku laughs. “I can’t imagine you having a boyfriend or husband, though!”“Donor,” Otome says, taking a long sip of her wine. “I always knew I wanted to be a mother, it was just a matter of when.”Otome, Dice, and putting a family back together.





	thicker than water

_ Otome and Ichijuku talk quite a bit in what one would not consider a professional manner over Ichijuku’s chosen wine and cheese of the week in their pajamas. Every Thursday, in fact. _

 

_ “I could never imagine myself having children, is all.” Ichijuku says.  _

 

_ Otome hums. “I was your age when I had my son. It’s not for all, I can tell you that right now.” _

 

_ Ichijuku laughs. “I can’t imagine you having a boyfriend or husband, though!” _

 

_ “Donor,” Otome says, taking a long sip of her wine. “I always knew I wanted to be a mother, it was just a matter of when.” _

  
  


“Mom,” Dice says over dinner _. _ “I want to emancipate myself.” 

 

Otome thinks back to every bit of ‘rebellion’ she had allowed- his hair, his name (Otome had never believed in depriving a child of their self-expression)- “Okay.”

 

Dice blinks at her. “Really?”

 

“Really. Where are you going to sleep? Do you have a job lined up? I’m not just going to let you starve on the street. I’m guessing you’re not wanting to finish high school.”

 

Dice pushes his food around with his chopsticks. “I have enough money piled up to start renting this apartment I found in Shibuya, um, also I’ve been working.”

 

“You really put thought into this. It’s okay, but I want to see this apartment before you move into it, and we’re working out a monthly budget for you. Where do you plan on getting furniture from.”

 

“That’s cool. Oh, you know Tadashi? His mom’s getting rid of a bunch of old furniture and I made her promise me I could like, have it?”

 

Their food gets long cold as Otome makes Dice relay each and every part of Dice’s plan to make a living on his own to her, Otome making more realistic corrections when needed. 

 

“ _ Okay,”  _ Otome hisses lowly to herself that night, gripping a can of cheap beer so hard it dented-  _ what kind of mother just says ‘okay’ when her fifteen-year-old son wants to leave home? Was she  _ stupid? 

 

Otome fell back on her bed, not caring if the can spilt on her sheets. It was such a detailed plan, too- she hadn’t even  _ noticed  _ he had a job. She was pathetic- trying to raise an independent child and winding up driving him away. Where did she fail him?

 

Otome insists Dice call her no less than once a week. It’s like a dam has been broken- Dice shares just about everything with her, and they end up talking for hours on end. 

 

Then, the calls stop. (Otome can’t see, can’t know, but Dice has just had his first big loss. A bad hand and a high bet, all risk, no reward.)

 

The first week, Otome assumes it’s work.

 

The fourth, she’s sick- so much more nauseous than when she had been pregnant with him, and she had thrown up after almost every meal then. 

 

“ _ I killed him, I killed him, I killed him,”  _ She’s sobbing and she can’t remember the last time she’s been drunk like this but it’s been eight weeks and Otome has, effectively, killed her son. 

 

Dice is eighteen when he sees his mother for the first time in three years. She’s on every screen in downtown Shibuya, and oh- there goes the prime minister. 

 

Dice thinks about how she used to joke that she’d take over the world one day and then thinks,  _ huh, she actually did it.  _

 

In another two years Dice won’t mention how his palms feel sweaty as they approach the big, grey, iron wall of Chuuoku. Gentaro won’t comment on how shakily Dice takes the keys from him- to get that imaginary deck of cards, and Ramuda won’t notice at all. (It’s always nerve-wracking when your parents watch, after all.)

 

In another two years, it will take all Otome has to remain impassive as Fling Posse takes the stage in the Division Rap Battle.  _ Her son, her son, her son. _

 

_ Dead or Alive indeed,  _ she thinks, maybe a touch bitterly, cup of ice (she had drank all the water out of it) gripped in her hand. Otome doesn't bother to wipe the tears that fall- her private rooms are some of the most guarded in the country, after all. 

 

Two weeks after the battle, Fling Posse gets mail- Ramuda gives them envelopes addressed to their M.C. names, all the way from Chuuoku. 

 

There’s line that’s handwritten at the bottom of his. He knows it’s not at the bottom of Ramuda’s, or Gentaro’s, so he swallows the lump in his throat and cracks a joke about participation prizes. 

 

_ I’m proud of you,  _ It reads, in a neat, sharp handwriting. 

 

Dice keeps the letter tucked in the inside pocket of his jacket.

 

“You look like you’re thinking real hard, Daisu! Be careful not to wear yourself out, you don’t do that much!”

 

Dice throws a pencil at Ramuda from where he sits, staring at the blank piece of paper. 

 

He’s realized he...he really misses Mom. He’d probably be stupid to not take the chance he write back to the Chuuoku address on the envelope, in hopes it finds its way to her. 

 

But…what the hell is he supposed to write?  _ “Sorry I haven’t talked to you in like five years, Mom, but I got addicted to gambling and it was between dinner and a payphone most nights. I see you’re the dictator now, is it a hard job?” _

 

(Dice has no way to know this, but the letter reaches Otome by sheer serendipity of two interns chatting where Ichijuku can hear them.)

 

It’s a bit rough to take the train to Chuuoku- especially when you have to sneak onto said train- but Dice makes it, and struggles to the capitol building. 

 

(Girls are still  _ crazy  _ over the Divison Rap Battle dudes, it seems. Dice wonders if it’s because they don’t really see any men- he did kind of have to sneak in here illegally, after all. Pretty thrilling, committing state offenses.)

 

He’s three seconds away from being arrested right outside the  _ Kantei  _ when Kadenokouji Ichijuku, clearly getting off break judging by the giant frappuccino in her hand, takes pity on him. 

 

“You’re lucky I know why’d you even be here,” She snarls at him, “Or I would’ve recommended something worse than an arrest for you.”

 

Dice should probably say thank you. “How do you walk in those shoes?” is what he asks instead. Her giant stilettos look painful, to say the least.

 

Kadenokouji sneers at him even more (if that was possible), and doesn't talk to him for the rest of the walk to what he assumes (hopes) is Mom’s office. 

 

Fair. 

 

“This door. Knock; if I find out you’re here for anything other than a visit I’m putting a warrant out for your arrest and eventual execution.”

 

“Wait, where are you going?”

 

“Paperwork.”

 

“Fucking lame,” Dice says without thinking- like he says a lot of things. 

 

“I know,” Kadenokouji says, before disappearing into her own office.

 

Dice knocks, maybe a little too loudly. 

 

“ _ Enter,”  _ a soft voice from behind the thick oak doors echoes. Dice, with no great flourish or ceremony, enters. 

 

“Uh, hi. Mom.”

 

Mom stares. 

 

Dice stares back.

 

“I thought you were dead,” She says, standing from behind her desk and walking to stand in front of him.

 

“I’m sorry,” Dice says, not knowing what else to say. 

 

“No,” Mom says, reaching up to touch his face. “I’m sorry. I failed you.”

 

“You didn’t- you didn’t- it was just, we wanted different lives for me but you wanted me to be happy and I wanted me to be happy-” Dice is hiccuping and Mom is wiping his tears with the edge of her sleeve and-

 

“You’ve gotten so tall,” Mom says, and Dice loses it completely, sobbing and grabbing her into a hug. He’s missed about five years of them. 

 

Mom’s patting him on the back and he hears her sniffle too and he cries harder because he’s a fucking asshole who just made his mom cry.

**Author's Note:**

> I LOST A DELETED SCENE I WANTED TO PUT HERE but pls imagine dice going through old photo boxes and hes like "whos this" and otomes like "its me when i was your age" and dice is like ?????no way and otome is like "haha yeah i was crazy back in the ninties"
> 
> because otome w a wild youth is kinda my lifeblood rn
> 
>  
> 
> a family can be a matriarchal dictator and her rat son! i love them.
> 
> edit: my twitter is @xmilydraws


End file.
